The Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (APC) initiated numerous proceedings falling within its jurisdiction in respect of suspected violations of the Law on the Financing of Political Entities and Election Campaigns, as well as misuse of public resources during the campaign for local elections.

The case concerning the Decision on free suburban and urban scheduled transport in the territory of the Capital City, on the routes operated by the company “Putevi” d.o.o., received special attention of the APC, as well as of the public.

After analysing the collected evidence, the case files and the declaration on the outcome of the examination procedure submitted by the Capital City, the Agency has found that Article 42 paragraph 2 of the Law was violated by the adoption of the mentioned Decision.

Namely, the Agency took into consideration the allegations made in the declaration of the Capital City, in which it was pointed out that the aforementioned Decision had not been adopted for the purpose of conducting an election campaign, nor was it of a political nature, and that it did not provide benefits or discriminate against any category of the population, but that it applied equally to everyone using bus transport on the routes operated by the city company “Putevi” d.o.o. The declaration further stated that the reason for adopting the Decision was to celebrate the European Mobility Week, as the European Commission's flagship awareness-raising campaign on sustainable urban mobility, in which thousands of cities and municipalities throughout Europe participate, and that a similar practice was present in previous years.

Considering all these allegations, the Agency points out that the aforementioned Decision was adopted in a different scope than in previous years, since it laid down that the transport users shall be entitled to free transport in the period between 1 September 2024 and 30 September 2024, i.e. for one month, while the European Mobility Week is celebrated between 16 September and 22 September 2024, i.e. for seven days, whereby a new subsidy was introduced for the payment of communal services, i.e. the services public passenger transport in urban and suburban settlements provided by a company founded by a local self-government unit.

The Agency will, with full commitment, continue monitoring compliance with all legal obligations during the election campaign and ensuring that public resources are used transparently, thus preventing their misuse.